RS100 Fall 2002
Professor: Randal Cummings
Office: SH 422
Office Hours: T 10: A.M.— 11: A.M.., by appointment, via email, etc.
Webpage: http://www.vcsun.org/~cummings or; http://www.csun.edu/~rcummings
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF RELIGION:
Web Course Version

An exploration of approaches to the evaluation and understanding of religious phenomena, paradigms, myths, motifs, and their interpretation in a global and academic perspective.

This course could in all likelihood be the most fun you will ever have in a college course. What is more, since this is a web-course, most of the class will be conducted online in place of regular class meetings. We will thus combine traditional teaching methods with the exciting potentials of cyberspace to literally straddle two worlds.
Description: This course meets the general education C3 requirements for study in Humanities since the study of religion is central to the thought structures, social patterns, art, literatures, and war-and-peace endeavors of humanity. Though this course will largely be aimed at gaining an understanding of the foundations and development of the concept of "religion" we will also avail ourselves of the larger context with which the issues surrounding religious plurality gains momentum in the late 20th Century. This course aims at examining the gamut of religious expression in their reduction to generalities as a way into the specific analysis of religious particularities. This course will encompass an examination of the "deep-structure" religious paradigms which undergird and are expressed in the religions of humanity, while at the same time we will be looking at some of the theoretical issues involved in the interpretation of religion. Among other things we will examine myth as sacred communication and observe the transformations of myth into literature and cultural symbolism in a vast array of exotic and even esoteric contexts.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: My teaching philosophy for this course is quite simple; it is simply a matter of turning my students into amateur historians of religion with all the requisite skills and critical methodologies that lofty and noble vocation entails. Doing that requires some work. It involves making them aware of the history of interpretation and the contemporary hermeneutical options as well as the ambivalent, contradictory, and complementary paradigms that sift and shift through the multivalent religious traditions found in human culture. By necessity this courses is inter-disciplinary, aims for multi-cultural lucidity, and emphasizes empathy and understanding of the other and cautiousness in interpretation of otherness (epoche), hence, critical thinking. Since there is much that appears as exotic and esoteric to the uninitiated, this course will serve as an initiation into the mysteries of the scientific study of religion as well as an invitation to self-scrutiny and personal quest. My ambition is to render sophisticated philosophical concepts accessible, to create an appreciation for the subtle, and to build an "ecosphere of the spirit" in the minds of my students that values the quest for transcendence, human identity, purpose, and meaning within the traditions of humanity. As I said, my teaching philosophy is quite simple, it's my work ethic that makes the demands.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: reading assignments, class participation via the internet, one mid-term examination, one research paper on a relevant topic of your choice, one final-examination, and, of course, good mental hygiene.

THE RESEARCH PAPER: The choice of paper topics has a wide range of flexibility in the hopes that the students will pursue subjects that command their interests and spark their imaginations. You will want to begin exploring possible topics from practically the beginning of the course and should not only feel free but consider it a necessary step in your preparation to consult the instructor concerning your topic. Various strategies for generating a viable topic will be discussed in class.

Texts:
The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most
Animated Family
by Mark I. Pinsky, Tony Campolo
Westminster John Knox Press; ISBN: 0664224199; (August 20, 2001)
Varieties of Religion Today: William James Revisited (Vienna Lecture Series.)
by Charles Taylor
Hardcover: 144 pages ;
Harvard Univ Pr; ISBN: 0674007603; (March 2002)

The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience
by Eugene G. D'Aquili, Andrew B. Newberg
Fortress Pr; ISBN: 0800631633; (August 1999)
Revelation, the Religions, and Violence
by Leo D. Lefebure, Ewart Cousins
Orbis Books;(July 15, 2000)
ISBN: 1570753008;
Westminster John Knox Press; ISBN: 0664224199; (August 20, 2001)

Assignments and grading criteria: All assignments will be posted. Preparation and class participation are factored into the grading. Students must participate in all posted class assignments. This cannot be emphasized enough. The mid-term accounts for approximately 20% of your grade, the final about 20%, and the research paper 20% with a 40% margin based on online class participation (quality of comments, thoroughness of thought, evidence of reading, timeliness, etc). In addition, 2% will be subtracted from your overall grade for untimely participation for each assignment. My scale includes plus and minuses. Make-ups are possible only by divine intervention.